MOST DEADLY MACHINE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 197, 23 August 1935, Page 7

MOST DEADLY MACHINE.

SIX TONS OF BOMBS. Details were recently published by the New York Times of a “mystery” bombing aeroplane of unusual design which lias just boon completed at the Boeing aircraft factory at Seattle for the Army Air Corps. It. is the first machine flown by the army or the navy to have four engines. These are 800 h.p. Pratt and Whitney Wasps which van be replaced by 1000 h.p. engines if these should be made available within the next two or three years. The machine, it is stated, will be able to carry six tons of bombs 6000 miles without, refuelling, and its highest speed will be 230 m.p.h. The aeroplane, it. is claimed, will be, if it comes up to expectations, the deadliest air machine in the world. Its range will greatly exceed that of the latest type of Irans-ocean machines built for commercial use. iMade of metal sheets consisting of duralumin sandwiched between two thin layers of pure aluminium, it is a longwing monoplane with retractable land ing gear. It is capable of reaching a height of 30,000 .feet (over 5L miles). Provision has been made to supply oxygen for the crew at such levels. Unlike previous American military models, in which open cockpits have always been insisted on to give, the pilots and gunners the maximum visibility, it. has a closed cabin with machinegun turrets in the nose, on each side of the fuselage, behind the wing and on top of (ho fuselage near the tail.